With Respect to The Terrifying, Truck-Throwing Texas Tornado, Here’s a Video of a Moving Train Being Toppled By a Twister

Earlier this week a batch of giant tornados criss-crossed the Dallas-Ft. Worth region, making news for the startling footage of 30,000 pound big rig trailers getting flung through the air like pieces of paper. Shocking photos and images, and a reminder of how intense the power of nature can be. Fortunately, no deaths have been reported.

As scary as the footage is, it’s not the first time large cargo transportation has been affected by a twister. I’ve previously posted the video at the top of this post, a frightening first-person-view shot of a moving freight train getting toppled by a passing tornado. Make sure to watch the end of it–just when you think it’s over, things look like they might just get worse. This occurred in January 2008, in Illinois. More details of the tornado are available here, and some cleanup pics here.

The video of the trailers getting flung by the high winds is posted below, as well as a raw video feed from the helicopter tracking the tornado and its damage. Who is crazy enough to fly a helicopter near a tornado? I wonder how well the special “tornado-proof” truck from Storm Chasers would fare in this situation.

With Respect to The Terrifying, Truck-Throwing Texas Tornado, Here’s a Video of a Train Being Toppled By a Twister http://t.co/fN3pOHbx

KittyDelAmour

This happened less than a mile from my house, and this video always blows my mind! That storm did a lot of local damage, mostly to trees, but also a few local farms. (Also, I found you on LifeHacker, with the silicone baby heads…what a brilliant idea!)

Less than a mile away is no joke — glad you’re still around to tell the tale. What a bizarre occurrence, especially in the middle of the winter. How disruptive was it day-to-day life in your area?

KittyDelAmour

The cleanup was mostly taken care of within a week…I believe this storm also took down a few high tension lines as well, so some people were out of power, but even that was resolved fairly quickly – I’d say a temp fix was made in something like 36 hours, with the repairs to the towers taking 6-8 weeks. The biggest problem was just getting all the fallen trees and branches cleared up. Well, and that train.

There was also a huge train fire out here a couple years ago. Some torrential summer rains had washed out a drainage ditch, the track collapsed, and a train carrying some sort of fuel just crashed and burned, pun intended. There were evacuations of the nearby homes, and the litigation continues on that one, but it happened on my birthday, so I’ll always remember that one.

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